Jeopardy Daily Double – “Places that Never Sleep - Alex, what are New York and Brocade Data Centers?"

It’s fun to be in sales when you have the best products in town to create flat Layer 2 networks to virtualize data centers and create the foundation for private cloud networks, aka, the Brocade VDX.

Last week I was reminded of this fact during a 3-day whirlwind tour through the Big Apple. Calling on customers in NY I am reminded that the only way New York City can maintain its reputation as the City that Never Sleeps is through the entire infrastructure that keeps it “open” 24/7. Brocade has a host of customers in this city who rely on us to provide non-stop networking to manage all of the data, traffic (network, not Yellow Cabs) and devices flowing through one of the most critical and influential cities in the world. I am proud to say that 90% of the Global 1000 rely on us to keep them up and running today.

New Yorkers demand the best in the world; they also want the fastest and most current products, and if those products are a little edgy and give them a competitive advantage, even better. So when we talk to customers about VDX/VCS and we tell them the pros of collapsing Layers 3 and 2 and removing the need for inefficient Spanning Tree Protocol in their networks, they get it in a New York minute. And our goal of becoming the premier provider of Ethernet fabrics becomes that much closer.

Speaking of goals, I had a few people ask me recently tongue-in-cheek whether I had decided to take up a new profession when it was announced that the San Jose Sharks had just signed a new, very talented defenseman named Ian White. I want to quash that rumor as I am still the same Ian Whiting, although in a side-by-side comparison, I can see how this would cause confusion. Hint: I’m the handsome one.